Is There Any Reason Why Guppies Or Platys Can't

be raised as feeders for the appropriate sized fish? I'm thinking that the babies could be offerred to say, Blue Spotted Sunfish and other small fish. As the feeders grow, they could be given to something a little larger.

I don't see any reason why not. Is the cost of feeding feeders cheaper than purchasing food for your other fish? It may be easier to just buy frozen bloodworms for your fish instead.

be raised as feeders for the appropriate sized fish? I'm thinking that the babies could be offerred to say, Blue Spotted Sunfish and other small fish. As the feeders grow, they could be given to something a little larger.

If you buy feeder fish its best to raise your own as you know . I have platies they breed left and right and I feed the babies to my dollar sun .
Nice thing with platies is that you can set up a nice tank with 1 or 2 males and few females and the fish fry never stop coming (put in some plants fake or real as cover) . I find platies hardier than guppies . I keep the common red/orange 'Mexican" strain .
I imagine You could just as easily keep adult platies with your blue suns they will 'shoot out" babies my dollar would kill them so thats not possible

I knew someone who kept guppies in with his black banded sunnies for the same reason. The only problem you might have is that guppies and platys like fairly hard water, whereas, black bandeds and bandeds like soft water. Blue spots come from hard water sites, so hard water probably won't be so much of a problem for them.

I've thought of raising rosy red minnows for feeders. Cary Nixon (Phil's wife) told me years ago of some experiments that found that fathead minnows (one of the rosy reds' parent species) outproduced just about every livebearer in a series of experiments.

If you buy feeder fish its best to raise your own as you know . I have platies they breed left and right and I feed the babies to my dollar sun .
Nice thing with platies is that you can set up a nice tank with 1 or 2 males and few females and the fish fry never stop coming (put in some plants fake or real as cover) . I find platies hardier than guppies . I keep the common red/orange 'Mexican" strain .
I imagine You could just as easily keep adult platies with your blue suns they will 'shoot out" babies my dollar would kill them so thats not possible

I knew someone who kept guppies in with his black banded sunnies for the same reason. The only problem you might have is that guppies and platys like fairly hard water, whereas, black bandeds and bandeds like soft water. Blue spots come from hard water sites, so hard water probably won't be so much of a problem for them.

I've thought of raising rosy red minnows for feeders. Cary Nixon (Phil's wife) told me years ago of some experiments that found that fathead minnows (one of the rosy reds' parent species) outproduced just about every livebearer in a series of experiments.

About 10 years ago I had Mud darters who I bought from Ray Katula . I would feed the 2 larger male Darters guppy fry they loved them however the smaller females wouldnt touch them and just fed guppy fry once in blue moon but I think they were huge due to that as a whole I only fed glassworms and tubifex but the 2 darters who loved guppy fry were monsters by mud darter standards.

I had them for few yrs granted they never bred thus perhaps guppy fry wasnt a good idea lol but they lived for yrs